Roche Holding AG has agreed to purchase U.S. biotech company InterMune Inc for $8.3 billion in cash, helping the world's leading maker of cancer drugs expand into the treatment of rare or incurable diseases.Roche's efforts to produce successful non-cancer drugs from its own labs have been mixed, with setbacks in recent years for experimental drugs against heart disease, diabetes and schizophrenia.The Swiss drugmaker already markets Pulmozyme for cystic fibrosis and Xolair for severe asthma in the United States and has other experimental respiratory products in clinical development, including another severe asthma drug called lebrikizumab.The InterMune deal brings it a promising new drug, pirfenidone, for treating a progressive and ultimately fatal scarring condition of the lungs. Pirfenidone is approved for so-called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in Europe and Canada, and is undergoing U.S. regulatory review.
InterMune, Inc. (InterMune) is a biotechnology company focused on the research, development and commercialization of therapies in pulmonology and orphan fibrotic diseases. Shares of ITMN traded higher by 1.11% or $0.59/share to $53.80. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $10.95 and as high as $55.24. On average, 2075640 shares of ITMN exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1435916.
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